Should I Save Him?
by 3DPhantom
Summary: Dib hates Zim, Zim hates everyone, and Gaz just doesn't care. The thing about Dib is, he's human, and Zim is less than invincible. Dib has strong morals, and respects all life. Therefore, he finds himself asking a single question multiple times.… "Should I save him?" Even hate has a limit. ZimAndDibFrenemies. (Chapter 1: Drowning) (Chapter 2: EMP - Electromagnetic Pulse)
1. Chapter 1: Drowning

**A/N:** This is my first Invader Zim story, and it's a one-shot, most likely. I may make it a two-shot at some point, if people like it.

This story is a ZADF, though it's realistic. They aren't great friends, rather more like frenemies (friends and enemies). No romance involved unless you want to think that way.

By the way, it took me two hours to write this, and it was three in the morning! So, not the best story ever. Nevertheless…

I hope you all enjoy. Please Read and Review!

**~~Should I Save Him?~~**

It was another dark, twisty day in the far future of the world we know. Ms. Bitter's class sat bored as Ms. Bitters herself continued on the day's lecture.

"So, evidently, every moment that each one of you lives, another person has to die because of the lack of resources and overpopulation…"

Zim laughed in the front corner of the classroom. "Stupid humans! Can't even manage their own population! What FOOLS!" He cackled again.

"Yes Zim, all completely useless, just like you and everyone else in this classroom," Ms. Bitters said, effectively cutting off Zim's laugh, making him frown without comprehension. After all, he has no ability to even begin to imagine that anyone would call the great Invader Zim useless. Dib chuckled on the other side of the front row.

Skool would be over in five minutes, so Ms. Bitters stopped the lesson short to make an announcement.

"I have to tell you students that tomorrow you are all going on a field trip to one of the only places left on Earth that wasn't effected by the Greatest War. Make sure you pack a lunch, or starve for the day. The choice is yours." The bell rang and students shuffled out of the room.

"The place not effected by the Greatest War?" Zim wondered out lowed.

"Jee, Zim. You've been in this class for a couple months now. Haven't you been paying attention?" Dib wondered. "You know, if you're going to try and take over a planet, you might want to learn its history."

"Insolent Earth boy!" Zim yelled. "I don't need to know anything about the past of you stupid humans! I'll go on this… field trip, and you'll see it's not important for me to know anything about your planet's history to rule it!"

**\ (THE NEXT DAY) /**

The whole skool had just gotten off the busses at the location of their field trip. Zim walked to the edge and looked down.

"Well, this is not at all what I expected…" Zim said in surprise. Dib laughed from behind him.

"What's the matter Zim? Didn't know we'd be visiting a lake? I told you that it was important to know more about the Earth! You didn't prepare for a little swim, did you?"

"What?!" Zim laughed. "NONSENSE! Zim always comes prepared!" The green one looked back at the clear water and gulped. He doesn't bathe in paste every day, after all. Only when the forecast calls for rain. Never had it occurred to him that the field trip might involve water.

Zim fidgeted nervously with his fingers, and Dib watched him carefully with a smirk on his face.

"Alright class," Ms. Bitters called her class over. The whole skool was there, including the younger grade levels. Gaz was currently sitting on a log nearby, refusing to acknowledge her teacher as she tapped on her handheld video game.

"Everyone grab a raft," Ms. Bitters instructed. On the water's edge were wooden floating blocks with a paddle in each. Zim thought they looked rather unstable, of course. How could anything made of wood rather than metal be effective?

"Eh, Ms. Bitters," Zim started, still nervously eyeing the water. "I'm really not feeling well, so perhaps I could just…" Ms. Bitters sent him a sharp glare.

"No, Zim. The skool is requiring that EVERYONE go out on the stupid lake. It is the last natural lake on Earth, and the board thinks it will be 'good for you' to experience a piece of 'true nature'."

"Will you be going on the lake?" One of the students from the back asked. Ms. Bitters growled at him.

"No."

"But you said that everyone…" Ms. Bitters grabbed the boy by the head and threw him into the water. Zim cringed as a drop landed near him.

"Now then," Ms. Bitters said as the boy began to clamber out of the lake, dripping wet. "Are there any further questions?" All remained silent. "Good, then go grab a raft."

The classmates all dispersed and each grabbed one of the sum two hundred rafts lining the mile wide lake. Gaz mumbled and picked the one next to her older brother, for no particular reason. Dib and Gaz pushed off, sticking close together as Gaz attached her raft to Dib's with a rope and had him paddle for the both of them.

"Come on, Zim." Dib's smirk widened darkly as he watched Zim eye the raft. Zim mumbled something incoherently and stepped in. It wobbled with the movement, but Zim managed not to tip over the edge. He sat down carefully and picked up the paddle. Observing the other human scum for a moment, he pushed off from the shore with the wooden stick in his hands.

Dib watched from his spot near the center of the lake as Zim slowly drifted further from the shore. With each passing moment Zim felt as if land was moving miles away rather than mere feet. The distance slowly grew and soon he could look down into the clear water and see that it went down a ways before dropping off into darkness. Zim nearly stumbled as he quickly leaned away from the edge, scared to think of what would happen if he fell into the darkness bellow.

Dib chuckled in amusement.

"What's so funny, Dib?" Gaz asked without looking up from her game.

"Zim. He's going to fall into the lake, I can feel it! If not, I can always give him a little help." Dib's smile grew impossibly bigger.

"Not while I'm here you won't. Knowing you and him, you'll make yourself fall, and you'll make me fall too. If you get me wet Dib I swear…" Dib stopped listening as a cheerful student went paddling by Zim as fast as they could go. The student was laughing and stood on the raft, as if trying to surf on the wood. Zim was eyeing the student nervously, and let out a sudden high-pitched scream as the student lost their balance and fell sideways, grabbing on to Zim's raft and making it tip as well.

Zim couldn't stop himself from falling in, the water burning his skin instantly. Zim's scream was immediately cut off as his head went under the water, the clear liquid entering him and burning down his throat. He could look up and see the light above him at first, but soon the darkness of the depth of the lake overtook his vision and he couldn't tell anymore which way was up. For the first time in his life, Zim felt completely lost without direction.

Dib was laughing hysterically on the floor of his raft, clutching his sides as they burned from all the laughter. Gaz looked up to where Zim fell into the water, the ripples dispersing as the student who fell got back into his boat and paddled away. Zim, however, didn't reemerge.

"Your friend is dying, you know," Gaz said to the laughing Dib, still without looking up from her game.

Dib stopped rolling on the floor of the raft and stood, laughter still racking his body slightly. "Nah, he'll be fine. The water burns him, which is pretty damn hilarious, but unfortunately it doesn't kill him. He'll be healed by tomorrow."

"Oh really?" Gaz asked as she tapped on her buttons. "Isn't he supposed to be an alien or something?"

"Yeah, that's why water burns him," Dib said matter-of-factly.

"Well, if I did believe he was an alien, and I don't really care if he is or isn't," she added as Dib tried to reassure her that Zim wasn't human. Dib stayed quiet and let her finish. "If he really was an alien, how would he know how to swim?" She asked. Dib shrugged.

"Of course he knows how to swim. I mean…" Dib stopped abruptly, really thinking about what Gaz was saying. Dib took a quick look around the edge of the lake, his smile gone, and saw that Zim hadn't come up yet.

"He can't swim," Gaz verified for her older brother. Dib swallowed a knot in his throat.

"S-so what? I shouldn't care! I mean, he's trying to destroy the world, Gaz! It's best if he dies…" Dib couldn't stop himself from looking back to where Zim had fallen in.

"Sure, whatever," Gaz continued to type on her handheld. Dib swallowed again.

Nervously, he looked to the shore. "Ms. Bitters?" He asked loudly. His teacher looked up at him from across the lake.

"What is it Dib?" she asked in annoyance.

"I-I think Zim is drowning…" Dib said. Ms. Bitters cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Well, that's too bad," she said, but didn't make an attempt to save the green-skinned boy.

"Aren't you going to do something?" Dib asked in shock, his voice a little too shrill for him to pass as someone who didn't care.

"I don't like water," Ms. Bitters said.

"But isn't it your job to…"

"No." Ms. Bitters cut Dib off shortly and hissed before disappeared into the dark woods surrounding the lake.

Dib stared, dumbfounded. He looked back at the water. Zim had been under for at least a whole minute already, and Dib had no idea how long he would last, since he was an alien and all.

Dib leaned over the side of the raft, but still didn't dive in. He shouldn't care, he should want Zim to die! But still…

_'Should I save him?'_ Dib thought to himself, completely unsure. Dib frowned deeply and Gaz sighed in frustration.

"Curse you Dib, you know you're going to do it anyways. You're weak, and you don't like to watch people die. Even if they're an alien," Gaz actually looked up from her game this time. She stood, stepped into Dib's boat, and shoved him over the edge.

Dib sputtered a little and looked up at his little sister from the surface of the water. She pointed to where Zim had gone under and Dib groaned before diving under the water.

As quickly as he could Dib swam over to where Zim had gone under. He looked as far down as he could through the clear water, but couldn't find the alien.

Dib groaned and took a deep breath before swimming down into the depths. It was dark, and Dib could feel the water grow colder as he went down. Soon he felt the bottom and reached out in the darkness. He couldn't find anything, and his air supply was running low, so he let the air in his lungs lead him back to the surface of the water. He took another deep breath and dived down again.

_'I know he won't last much longer,' _Dib thought to himself. Zim was an alien. He didn't have lungs, per-say, but he still needed to breathe. Dib had to find him quickly if he actually did want the alien to survive.

Dib didn't stop and question whether or not he really wanted to save Zim, but rather took a third deep gulp of air and dove down again. He began to feel the panic and hopelessness of trying to find Zim in the depths. He wouldn't have found the small alien, if not for a small pink light that flashed bellow him. Dib swam down to it as quickly as he could and saw that it was a light on Zim's PAK, glowing faintly from its spot attached to Zim's spine. The light grew dimmer with every slowing blink. Dib quickly grabbed Zim around the torso and surged up.

He broke to the surface and pulled Zim to the edge of the lake, Zim's skin smoking where it was in contact with the air, burning because of the water around him.

Dib hauled him onto land, took a quick look around, and pulled the alien into the darkness of the tree line. He didn't know exactly what to do. Surely CPR wouldn't work. Zim was an alien without human organs, so nothing Dib knew could really help. Still, he had to try something.

Dib lifted Zim's eyelids, but saw only regular-looking eyes due to Zim's contacts. He grabbed hold of the contacts and pulled them off. Dib gasped when he saw that Zim's deep purple eyes had turned a light grey that was growing darker by the second. Dib imagined that it looked like a star dying, though it was a strange feeling to compare Zim, of all things, to a star.

"Hang on Zim," Dib said quietly as he turned the alien on his side. Dib tried rubbing Zim's back, hoping the water would come out on its own, but it didn't seem to be working. Dib looked at Zim's PAK again, the faint pink light still glowing off and on, just barely. As an idea struck, Dib pulled off his watch and ripped the back off of it. It was the watch that his father had given him for his birthday, but Dib couldn't spare the time to care as he pulled two wires from the now broken back of the watch and placed them on Zim's most important device. A strong electric shock went through, making Dib cringe, but the light on the PAK grew brighter and Zim couched suddenly, so Dib imagined that it had worked. Dib was glad, for once, that his father got him a cutting-edge watch for his birthday every year, and that his dad was too busy to come up with anything else.

Zim was trying to sit up, but his arms were too shaky and weak to manage. Dib grabbed Zim's forearms and gently helped him to a sitting position. As soon as he was sitting up, Zim pulled off his soaked wig to reveal two smoking antenna. He rubbed at them frantically while panting, trying to get them dry but failing because he was completely soaked.

"Here," came an annoyed voice and the two boys looked up to see Gaz holding out her jacket. Dib took it and gently rubbed on Zim's antennas. As soon as they were dry, Zim took a deep breath, as if able to truly breathe again. His eyes began to return to their regular deep pink color.

"Zim, are you okay?" Dib asked, his hand resting gently on Zim's shoulder. Zim looked at him for the first time.

"Dib-Stink?" He asked. "W-what happened? Did you pull me from the water?!" He asked in deep surprise. "You saved me?"

Dib tried to deny it, but ultimately nothing came out. "I… I just. I mean, I didn't…" Dib was at a complete loss for words.

Zim continued to stare at Dib, as if trying to wrap his head around the idea that he had been saved by a human, much less Dib. Then again, Zim always knew that Dib wasn't like other people. He was smarter in a lot of ways, but Zim still couldn't imagine Dib saving him. Dib hated him, right?

"I don't understand, Earth-Stink. Why did you pull me out?" Zim was honestly curious as to the answer by now.

"I… I just didn't want to see you die." Zim blinked at him twice, waiting for more. "It's not like I care whether you, specifically, live or die. I just don't want to see _anyone_ die. At least, not if I could have done something."

Zim couldn't stop a small smirk from crossing his features, resulting in a blushing and frustrated Dib. "Don't think this changes anything, Zim! I'm still not letting you take over the Earth, and I still want you off this planet!"

"Agreed, big-headed boy. Don't expect me to ever do the same! Your pathetic human-ness is worth nothing to someone as great as ZIM!"

"Yeah, whatever." Dib stood angrily and headed back to the lake. "Come on Gaz."

She grabbed her jacket and ran after her older brother. "So you see he's an alien right?" Dib asked her.

Gaz just shrugged. "Like I said earlier, I really don't care about you or your weird friend, Dib," she said as she pulled back out her game.

Dib looked back briefly to see Zim had called Gir and was now riding away. Dib supposed his sister was right. He just couldn't watch someone die, even if they were someone like Zim. It had nothing to do with Zim himself.

At least, that's what Dib would always tell himself.

**~~STORY END~~**

**A/N:** Hey guys. Yeah, so, this is my first Invader Zim story. It's the only thing I could manage at this point in my life. For those of you who don't know yet, I was in a little accident, so my ability to write will be at a minimal for a while. Those of you waiting for updates on some of my other stories, I'm sorry it's going to take a little time! I hope you understand.

And for the people reading this who have never read anything by me before, I hope you liked it, despite it being written at three in the morning! I'll probably write more Invader Zim at some point. I hope this little ZADF was satisfying.

Please Review. You've got the time. ; )


	2. Chapter 2: EMP - Electromagnetic Pulse

**A/N: Sorry, I know, it's been a while since I've written anything. Oops. Oh well. Sorry! Enjoy!**

Professor Membrane groaned as another idiot worker made a mistake, this time sending an Electromagnetic Pulse across the city. "I knew I should have used my clones for the lab!" He said in exasperation.

Across town, within the Membrane home, Gaz Membrane came charging into her brother's room. "DIB! My Game Slave stopped working! What did you do?! Fix it now or I'll send you to the underworld for all eternity," Gaz warned darkly. Dib was tapping on his laptop, which had a black screen.

"I didn't do it! My laptop and other equipment turned off too. My laptop has a battery, so the power can't just be out. Maybe it was an EMP!" Dib suddenly sounded excited. "ZIM! He'll be defenseless!"

Gaz scoffed. "I don't care about _Zim._ I want to know when my Game Slave will be on again!" Dib shrugged.

"I don't know. It shouldn't last more than…. maybe thirty minutes?" Gaz's eyes shot open, her left eye twitching dangerously.

"T-thirty m-minutes? B-b-but, I need my Game Slave! I can hear it…. begging…. I NEED it! FIX IT, DIB!" She grabbed the front of his tailcoat.

"Okay Gaz! Geez! Usually you can't fix stuff like this, and you just have to wait, but I think Dad's got a generator in the basement that's EMP-proof, in case of a robotic apocalypse or something. You can use that to re-start your Game Slave right now rather than later." Gaz instantly let her brother go and walked like she was hypnotized out of the room. Dib sighed, then jumped in excitement. "I've got to get to Zim's house!"

Dib grabbed his camera, re-booted it at the EMP-proof generator, and raced to Zim's house.

He stopped at the front lawn, eying the gnome guardians carefully. Surely Zim's alien technology would still be effected, right? Dib gulped and stepped into the yard. When there was no movement from the gnomes, he smiled widely and raced to the door.

As soon as he entered, he was shocked. He expected maybe Zim to attack him, or for Zim to be running around trying to find the source of the problem, but he hadn't expected this.

"GIR!" Zim called. "Computer! ANSWER ME! What's going on?!" Zim was crouched next to Gir's unmoving form, searching the room franticly. "Computer?!" Zim yelled again, looking for answers. He appeared to be seriously distraught.

Dib couldn't hold back a little laugh, mostly because he knew the EMP would be wearing off in another twenty five minutes or so. It'd only been five minutes since the pulse and already Zim was panicking!

Zim turned to look at Dib as he heard the laugh. Dib was surprised when it didn't seem that Zim could see him. "Who's there?!" Zim yelled. "Stay back!" Zim stood up and backed away from Dib, tripping over Gir's body and crashing to the floor. This caused him to slash out at thin air.

"Geez Zim. What's wrong with you?" Dib asked, bewildered by the alien's response to the EMP.

Zim's head snapped towards Dib. "YOU?! What did you do, _Dib?!_" Zim growled at him, standing up and walking towards Dib, only to trip on Gir once more, falling forward. Dib laughed.

"What? I didn't do it. It's just an EMP, Zim. Why can't you see anything?" Zim looked confused.

"An EMP? What is that?" Zim demanded.

"It just shuts off all technology," Dib responded. Zim looked horrified.

"All of my technology? Turned off?! I can't even see my Life Clock! FOR HOW LONG WILL IT BE OFF?!" Zim screeched. Dib covered his ears.

"Gosh, Zim. What the heck is your problem?! It only lasts like thirty minutes, so it'll only be like another twenty-four minutes or so. At least according to my camera's clock. And what's a Life Clock?" Dib didn't receive an answer at first as Zim's mouth hung open.

"Dib, please, you have to help me!" The alien sounded truly scared. Dib had to do a double take.

"W-what?!" Zim looked terrified now.

"You stupid boy! My PAK has been off for several minutes now! If it's left off for more than ten minutes, I die! My Life Clock warns me of how long I have left to live, but I can't even see that! Please, Dib!" Dib's mouth dropped open.

"WHAT?! Since when?! How long have you been like that?!" Zim stood up and raced to the door, slamming into the wall in his attempt to exit the house. "And why can't you see anything?" Dib repeated once more, demanding an explanation. Zim sighed in frustration, his limbs already feeling weak from the lack of any technology to keep his body functioning.

"I've always needed my PAK to live! I simply wouldn't expose such a thing to you under normal circumstances! I can't even see because the ocular implants in my eyeballs are the only thing that allow me vision on your overly bright planet!" Zim tried to stand up, finding himself lacking in the energy to do so.

"So you're dying?" Dib asked. "Sweet! Why would I want to help you, then?" Zim froze and looked up at what he presumed would be Dib's face. Zim couldn't see it, but Dib's smile disappeared when he saw the desperate look on Zim's face, and he knew for the first time how serious this was. Dib stayed quiet as Zim looked away.

Zim's features changed to one of anger and hurt. He placed his hands on the wall and used the rest of his strength to lift himself to a standing position, all of his weight shifted onto the house's frame.

"Never mind! How foolish of me to ask you! Zim needs the help of no one, anyways! Especially not the help of a puny, pathetic creature like you!" Somehow Zim's words weren't offensive when the alien was panting and looking like death was at his doorstep.

"You said you knew the time by your camera's clock?" Zim asked as he panted in the doorway. "So you must have something at your house that can reverse these effects! I will retrieve this device, and you won't be able to stop me!" Zim said as he tried to take a shaky step away from his house. He managed to take a few steps, until he reached the stairs in front of his base. Without the mathematical functions of his PAK, ocular implants, or a working brain, he'd miscalculated the distance to the front porch steps. One miss-step into open air and he was sent crashing onto the hard pavement of his front walkway.

Dib couldn't help but feel pity as he watched the pale alien grow paler, his body flailing on the walkway as he tried to stand but found himself unable to. Zim tried to crawl, but his imminent death was beginning to linger on his mind, and his limbs were feeling oh so heavy now.

Zim looked absolutely pitiful, and Dib couldn't take it anymore. He glanced at his camera; there was only a minute and a half left until Zim died. Sighing deeply, Dib ran forward and scooped Zim up bridal-style.

"What are you doing, Earth-monkey? Release Zim at once!" Zim demanded, but his voice was already weak and faltering. Dib ignored him and ran.

"Why are you doing this?" Zim demanded as he felt himself being whisked down the street, Dib running as fast as he could without tripping or dropping his cargo. Luckily, Zim was _incredibly _light. Much lighter, in fact, than Dib could have ever thought possible.

"Well," Dib said in response to Zim's question, "I know your main weakness now. I don't see why I should let you die. I still need to study you, for science! And I need to prove to the world that I'm not crazy." Zim looked confused.

"But, why can't you do that with my dead body? Wouldn't that be easier?" Zim asked in a quiet, pained whisper. Dib knew, of course, that the alien was right, but Zim looked so damn _helpless, _something that Dib had never seen in Zim before, so he couldn't just leave him there to die. It was, after all, part of what made Dib human; his _mercy_.

"Listen Zim, do you want me to save you or not?" Zim closed his mouth. "That's what I thought!"

Dib paused momentarily at his front door. Unable to grab the handle, he decided to kick it open, which sent a painful vibration through Zim's weak body. Dib was instantly concerned when the pain of said vibration made Zim pass out and go limp in Dib's arms.

"I've only got a few seconds left," Dib said to himself aloud. "I've got to hurry!" He rushed through his house and down the wooden stairs to their cellar, ignoring Gaz as she momentarily came out of her room to see who'd kicked the door open. She quickly decided that she wanted nothing to do with Dib's craziness and returned to playing her games.

Dib raced into his father's underground lab, scanning the various items for the proper generator. His eyes locked onto the equipment and he raced over to it.

He grabbed a few wires and made sure the grounds were properly connected to the generator before finding metal grooves in Zim's PAK that the metal wire tips would stick to. Dib assumed it was like a car battery, and all he needed to do was connect the working generator to the conductive metal on Zim's PAK in order to re-start it.

Dib wasn't left disappointed when a _'zap'_ sound was produced as electricity jumped between the generator and Zim's PAK. Dib jumped back in shock as sparks flew and the generator suddenly died, all of its available power having been drained instantly from the advanced Irken technology. Dib shook his head.

"No, that can't be it! Was it enough power?" He shook Zim's shoulder lightly. "Zim? Wake up! Are you still there? Was I too late? Was it not enough?!" Dib looked onto Zim's pale, unmoving form with worry deep in his eyes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

_'It shouldn't matter anyways,' _Dib told himself. _'Why would it matter? It doesn't…. I did all I could….'_ Dib tried to focus on the good outcomes; he'd finally be able to prove that Zim was an alien! The Earth would be safe! But, somehow, Dib's mind kept gravitation back to one thought….

_'I failed?'_

Dib shook his head again, trying to clear himself of the thought. He sighed and began to stand up to leave when he heard a small beeping noise. Dib looked questioningly at Zim's still unmoving form and pulled at Zim's PAK. As Zim turned, Dib could now see that a small pink light was once again flashing on Zim's PAK, as Dib had seen it flash once before. The flashes steadily grew stronger, faster, and brighter until they were at a steady pulsing rhythm.

Dib sighed, supposing that that meant Zim would be okay. He picked the still unconscious alien up and carried him steadily back to his own base.

When Zim woke up a few hours later, he was laying on the couch in his own home. Gir was singing to himself and watching TV, and there was no Dib in sight. Zim sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to re-adjust to the ability of sight. He looked around, everything once again appearing normal. The only sign left that anything had happened was the still open front door. Zim stood up, looked around outside, and closed the door softly.

Dib stood behind some bushes, unable to stop a smile from crossing his face.

_'Curse my humanity,' _Dib thought. This was, after all, the second time that Dib's moral standings had forced him to save Zim. Whenever Dib found himself asking the question of _"Should I save him?" _He never seemed to be able to stop the answer from being a _"Yes."_

**And we wouldn't want it any other way! ;)**

**\- 3DPhantom, signing off.**


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